Posted on 09/18/2010 7:58:48 AM PDT by La Lydia
Grass-roots activists organizing boycotts against large corporations like Target stores and BP now find themselves directing some of their ire at another corporate monolith: Facebook. The boycotters turned to the popular social media site to spread word about their pressure campaigns, but those efforts became much more difficult last week when Facebook disabled key features on the boycott pages. As the number of Facebook members signed up for the “Boycott Target Until They Cease Funding Anti-Gay Politics” page neared 78,000, Facebook locked down portions of the page — banning new discussion threads, preventing members from posting videos and links to other sites and barring the page’s administrator from sending updates to those who signed up for the boycott.
“It slices the vocal cords,” complained Jeffrey Henson, who ran the Facebook page, calling for a boycott of Target over its $150,000 donation to a group supporting a candidate some view as hostile to the gay community... “The page is now outraged” over the website’s action, Henson added.
Participants in the boycotts complain Facebook’s actions have created an uneven playing field in which ad hoc citizens’ groups face hurdles to online organizing — obstacles that corporations using social media have little trouble surmounting.
“Facebook is interfering with the function of a page dedicated to individuals organizing in response to corporate action to which they object,” said Nicholas Lefevre, a promoter of the Target boycott. “With the limited avenues for such expression and organization and the importance of the Internet to that ability, anything that threatens that expression is dangerous.”...
...response to a query from POLITICO, Facebook said the earlier pages were restricted because they ran afoul of the social media site’s terms of service, limiting so-called pages to individuals and entities that have some real structure in the bricks-and-mortar world....
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Agreed. Typical liberal entitlement mentality. What will they do now - start a MySpace page calling for a boycott of Facebook?
You are absolutely right.
Same thing goes with Google. Some here on FR get upset when Google doesn’t change its logo in celebration of causes we hold dear and sometimes recognizes events or causes that we don’t. Facebook can do what Facebook wants, and Google can, too. Their choice, and our choice whether or not to use their service.
Enjoying freedom ourselves requires tolerating it for others.
Cry me a river. These Facebook stories are always false. The anti-Facebook folks have FDS. Get a grip.
Amen Jedidah! Your post should be post of the day!
Tough. The liberals already control the TV, newspapers, publishing, movies, Google, Youtube. If they don’t like it they can pound sand.
*like* ; )
One of the comments in the article notes that when sites/companies/hollywood types go political popularity wanes.
I have purposely not “friended” a couple of people who I know would constantly post this kind of crap. The “X thinks all children in the world should join hands and sing for peace. If you agree press like” nonsense is so shallow. However some of these people think by doing that they are doing something.
All I really want to do on Facebook is check out the pictures and news of my family, friends and their kids, especially the ones that live out of town.
It’s also been a great information exchange odd things like harvesting seeds and opinions on gluten free products.
All I really want to do on Facebook is check out the pictures and news of my family, friends and their kids, especially the ones that live out of town.
Me too. I don’t even discuss politics on Facebook. That is what Free Republic is about. More folks that discuss politics on Facebook should come to Free Republic and get an education.
Communism and fascism is an unending struggle.
I don’t hate Facebook, although I have little use for it. However, GOOGLE is evil and part of the Odungo administration.
Adding to tagline....
;-)
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I did not like it when Jim tried out the "Like" button on the Latest Posts page.
btt
Without Google, I couldn’t complete the “Saturday Stumper” on-line crossword puzzle from the Boston Herald website.
I'm not angry at them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.